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I thought I would post some pictures of the board in my meeting area, to show you how I’ve got it set up. Every morning after I greet the children (and they greet me) in English and Spanish, we sing our Good Morning song. “Good morning Annie, good morning Ben, good morning Jose, we’re glad you’re here at school.” I do a letter of the week, and when we have reviewed the letters that we know so far, we sing the song pretending that everyone’s names starts with that letter. “Good morning Sannie, good morning Sen, good morning Sose, we’re glad you’re here at school.” You can see that the letter of the week is posted, and our letter cards are leaning against the chalk rail.

We have been learning one color a week, and the color of the week is posted at the top. We sing the months of the year song (the Greg and Steve version), and then count how many days we have had in the current month. Then we do it again, along the bottom of the board, in Spanish this time. Next, we count how many days we have been in school, in our countdown to the 100th day of school. I always add another straw to the pocket, and we count how many ones we have, how many tens, and discuss what number that makes. I don’t expect the kids to understand place value, but I think it’s a good idea to give them exposure to the concept, and each year some of my kids really get it.

Next, we read the morning message. The format is predictable, and most of the class joins in to read it with me. By the end of the year, some of the children will be able to read the sight words (the, is, of) and others will be reading a few more (love, boys, girls, school). I like reminding the children what we are learning about — it’s an expectation at my school that all students can answer that question. No one in the administration has asked my babies “what are you learning?” yet, but I’m hopeful that they would know the answer. I also think that posting it keeps us focused, and helps us make connections throughout the day.

Once we have followed these daily routines, the rest of the morning meeting varies. We might sing songs, do an activity around our math topic, read a book, or play a game.

I love how you are building your objectives into your morning message! I am teaching K this year after teaching PreK for the last 5 and I am struggling with finding ways to post/describe our daily/weekly/yearly objectives so that they are kid friendly, so thanks for your inspiration! Also, do your sentences typically remain the same every day for the week or was this a Monday example? Thanks again…I visit often!